MAPUSA: After trailing by a goal, Sporting Clube de Goa recovered strongly to score a hard fought 2-1 win over Salgaocar Football Club in the Goa Professional League match organised by GFA, played at Duler Stadium, here on Friday.
Mackroy Peixoto gave Salgaocar the lead in the first half while Sporting got the equaliser and the winning goal in the second half through Marcus Mascarenhas and Cajetan Fernandes respectively.
In a keen fought tussle, Salgaocar were on the front foot right from the second minute when U-20 Rolwin Almeida got hold off a perfect cross by Mackroy Peixoto who blasted wide.
However, Sporting too had their chances but keeper Melroy was alert to the situation reacting quicker than Devendra Murgaokar before any damage could be done and then minutes later stopping a fierce grounder from Ronaldo.
Sporting almost took the lead in the 30th minute but Stendly Fernandes’ power-packed shot from the edge of the box ricocheted of the horizontal bar.
Salgoacar who were on the back foot got a lucky breakthrough in the 31st minute through a penalty which was calmly converted by skipper Mackroy Peixoto. Rollwin Almeida’s well directed cross found Ronaldo Oliveira who positioned himself well and let go of an unstopping fierce shot towards the goal but keeper Melroy Fernandes was equal to the task by coming up with a smart stop but from the rebound he brought down by Ronaldo, referee David Rebello without any hesitation pointed to the penalty spot.
Sporting in-charge Mateus Costa who reshuffled his squad resting several key players in the wake of their feat against Dempo in the last match brought in Victorino Fernandes in the 41st minute which gave a new dimension to the attack and had two chances of getting his team back on level terms.
First, in the 49th minute, Salgaocar keeper Jason D’Mello managed to get his hands to push Victorino’s well struck shot for a corner and then in the 55th minute he was denied on the goal-line by defender Karan Shirodkar after the keeper had made a mess of long ball by Glen Martins.
Sporting’s constant pressure paid off through Marcus Mascarenhas who was first to react off a rebound and slammed the ball into the net after George D’Souza’s free-kick saw defender Saurabh Patil clearance hit the keeper and came into his path to make it 1-1.
Cajetan Fernandes scored a gem of a goal in the 83rd minute for Sporting with a curling free-kick which nestled into the net giving no chance for the keeper Jason to react to the delight of his teammates to make it 2-1.
Salgaocar almost snatched a point in the closing minutes but Stephen Satarkar failed to direct his header goal wards after Ronaldo’s shot was blocked by the Sporting keeper Melroy.
